Narrative Structure in Religious Conversion: The Case of Converts to the Pentecostal Methodist Church of Chile

Abstract

In this article I analyze the narrative structure of the discourse of individuals who have converted to the Pentecostal Methodist Church of Chile. I use Grounded Theory to analyze 11 conversion narratives, which were collected through a narrative-biographical interview, and with support from the graphical tool called Story-Line. The results identify two types of conversion narrative structure. The first one is understood as a personal salvation narrative, the second one is described as a spiritual renewal narrative. This allowed the construction of a conceptual model illustrating the way in which the conversion narrative of the convert is structured. The discussion is centered on comparing the findings of this study with other similar investigations; debating the similarities and differences found in conversion narratives and their differing philosophies. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1001210